The present disclosure relates to a user-focused system and method of Government Payment Service, Inc., dba GovPayNet® (“GovPayNet”) primarily used to enable constituents and remote users of government Agencies to more conveniently and expeditiously pay monies owed to a government office, department, quasi-government organization, or other public authority or entity (“Agency”) in connection with exercising various rights, securing various privileges, and making various purchases, such as paying fees for goods, services, licenses and permits, the posting of cash bail, the payment of warrants, citations, fines, probation fees, electronic monitoring fees, enforced child support, and other public charges in connection with exercising various rights and satisfying various obligations using modern, electronic financial means (“Transaction”).
The system and method of the present disclosure provides the ability for an Agency to provide an Internet payment environment for the acceptance of a credit card, debit card or prepaid debit card including but not limited to those issued by Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, Diners, or JCB (“Card Associations”), or other method to electronically obtain funds from other financial service providers and accounts (“Payment Device”) used by an individual (“Payment Device Holder”). The use of Payment Devices to make payments electronically, including over the Internet, is based in large part upon the information encoded upon the Payment Device (“Payment Device Data”) being automatically accessed by GovPayNet and similar electronic Transaction processing companies. It is the ability to access Payment Device Data that enables the Payment Device Holder (usually a consumer but also potentially an employee using an organization's Payment Device) to perform a Transaction at any Agency participating in the system and method of the present disclosure regardless of the Agency to which the obligation is payable, as long as the payee Agency also uses the system and method.
Private businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and public or quasi-public entities that accept Payment Devices generally contract with a third-party entity in the business (such as GovPayNet) of providing the connectivity, technology and operational support necessary for the acceptance of Payment Devices (“Processing Company”). The system and method of an illustrated embodiment of the present disclosure enables the Processing Company to make the system and method available to all Agencies under contract with the Processing Company for accepting Transactions not only for their own benefit but on behalf of other Agencies participating in the system and method and to confirm whether an obligation owed to that Agency has been paid through the present system and method to another Agency where both Agencies participate in the system and method.
The present disclosure uses data processing, payment industry, telecommunications and wireless technologies to accept Payment Devices used by a Payment Device Holder at an Agency so that the Agency may facilitate the acceptance of payments for any other Agency for which the first Agency is willing to provide this service. This distinguishes it from other methods in which a Processing Company accepts Transactions on behalf of a variety of Agencies. Where the system and method is deployed, each Agency participating in the system may act as a cooperative access point for the processing of a payment intended for any other participating Agency. Also, any system-participating Agency may verify directly that a payment owed to that Agency has been satisfied even if made through another system-participating Agency. The system and method accomplishes this by software configured to allow a participating Agency to accept Payment Device Data for any other participating Agency and transmit it through a secure connection to the Processing Company's Transaction processing system. In this manner, the Processing Company establishes an “interoperable,” secure, Internet-based, networked payment environment that multiplies the payment acceptance ability of any Agency by leveraging the facilities of all other participating Agencies.
GovPayNet processes Payment Device Data in full compliance with Payment Device Industry Data Security Standards, which are the rules promulgated and revised from time to time by the PCI Security Standards Council or such successor rules or organization that may be formed. There are also public sector laws and regulations requiring actions and imposing liability pertaining to a data breach involving Payment Device Data. There are other private sector security and operating requirements, plans, and programs applicable to Payment Device Data and Transactions, such as the rules and regulations governing entity participation in the Card Associations, as they may be amended from time to time (“Association Rules”). Collectively, these private sector and public sector provisions define an extensive, complex and evolving matrix of requirements that entities engaging in an electronic payment environment, such as the Internet, must meet in order to enable payments using Payment Devices and prevent the unintentional disclosure of Payment Device Data. The system and method of the present disclosure does not interfere with or compromise GovPayNet's ability to accept and handle Payment Device Data in full compliance with any data security standards or Association Rules.
It is anticipated that the system and method of the present disclosure will be used by groups of participating Agencies that have a motivation to cooperate. Examples include Agencies in a shared purchasing environment, typically regionally managed or Agencies that have other reason to cooperate such as local Agencies within a county, Agencies that share borders, Agencies that are “feeder” Agencies to other central Agencies, or other Agencies for which coordinated payment and confirmation of payment is in the Agencies' collective interests, as is often the case in state and local law enforcement. Although law enforcement Agencies routinely participate in shared offender data systems these efforts are still a work in progress in many respects.
In contrast, use of the system and method can provide real-time access to payment information immediately updated as Transactions are settled financially. This, of course, is not the same as instant access to criminal or other records, but the ability of Agencies to accept payments through the system and method is accompanied by the ability to verify that payments have been made through a cooperating Agency on a real-time basis is an advantage over accessing court records that may not be updated as quickly.
The system and method of the present disclosure would also have applicability in a situation in which a participating Agency's or Agencies' ability to accept Transactions is compromised by a manmade or natural disaster. In such circumstances, displaced constituents of any affected Agency may be permitted to continue to satisfy their financial obligations to local government by acting through other participating Agencies; for example, residents of one coastal city who have evacuated to another nearby city. Additionally, as individual networks of participating Agencies using the system and method expand, opportunities will grow for user networks in proximity with other user networks to become connected into even larger networks, for the benefit of all system stakeholders.
Additional features of the present system will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the present system as presently perceived.